Avalanche bury rivals

WASILLA — Midway through the first period on Friday, it looked like the Kenai River Brown Bears were on their way to another lopsided win over the Alaska Avalanche.

Just less than a week before, the Avalanche gave the Brown Bears ample opportunity on the power play and surrendered a flurry of early goals and Kenai cruised to an 8-0 win over the Avs.

And on Friday, the Avs once again gave their intrastate rivals early chances on the power play and Kenai River scored three times within the first 15 minutes of play to grab the early lead.

But despite the rough start, Alaska fought back to tally four unanswered goals and notch the 4-3 shootout win over the Brown Bears at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla in the Avs’ 2008-09 home-opener.

“I’m proud of the guys, they really hung in there,” Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said. “The didn’t give up, they kept battling back.”

Rookies Rudi Pino and Ryan Kowal each buried the puck during the shootout as the Avs improved to 5-2-0 overall and captured a win in their season opener for the fist time since the franchise’s inaugural season in 2005.

Logan Rounds scored the game-tying goal for the Avs late in the third period and goaltender Austin MacGinnis stopped 35 Kenai River shots in the win.

After surrendering goals to Chris Annuziato, Ryan Goodmanson and Jed McGlasson, MacGinnis shut the Bears out for the final 45 minutes of regulation, a five-minute overtime and the shootout.

“After a shaky first period, he came out and played great the rest of the game,” said Boitz, who also coached MacGinnis at North Iowa last year.

Boitz said MacGinnis’ play in the final two periods, the overtime and the shootout is a testament to his improvement as a Junior A goalie.

“That’s the maturity of him,” Boitz said. “A year or two ago, after that first period, he would have been done.”

MacGinnis squashed several quality Kenai River scoring opportunities in the final two periods, and made a pair of game-saving plays in overtime.

With less than two minutes remaining in overtime and Alaska skating on the power play, Kenai’s Jake Musselman stole the puck at the blueline and skated alone toward the Alaska net. Mussleman put a hard shot on the goal, but MacGinnis was able to knock the attempt aside with his glove hand.

With less than 30 seconds left and Kenai River on the power play, George Isham sent a rocket from the point, but MacGinnis — again with his glove hand — snagged the puck to make the save.

“Our goalie came up huge in the end there,” Alaska forward Tyler Currier said.

MacGinnis also spoiled Kenai’s hopes of nailing the game-winner in the shootout.

Forwards Kyle Clay and Nick Simson both sent shots high above the net in the shootout, but MacGinnis stopped shots by Annuziato and Ryan Lemke.

Lemke used a nifty move to draw MacGinnis out of the crease and the Alaska goalie fell to his chest. But even though he was on the ice, MacGinnis was able to reach over with his stick and keep Lemke from knocking the goal into the open net.

MacGinnis used a stick save to stone Annuziato.

While MacGinnis kept the Kenai pucks out of the net, Kowal and Pino buried Alaska’s first two opportunities in the shootout to give the Avs the win.

Both used quick wrist shots and sent the puck stick side on goalie Jimmy Hamby.

Currier and Derek Kimbro scored in regulation for the Avs, before Rounds posted the game-tying score.

After falling behind 3-0, Kimbro flipped a back-handed shot into the upper shelf of the net with 3:15 left in the first to cut Kenai’s advantage to 3-1.

Kimbro took a pass from Adam Friese, skated to the front of the net, between the circles, and put the shot on goal.

Currier brought the Avs within one score with a shorthanded goal midway through the second.

In the third, with the Avs on the power play, defenseman Braden Kinnebrew sent a crisp pass from the boards to Rounds who was crashing the Kenai net. The nearly perfect pass deflected off the blade of Rounds’ stick and into the back of the net.

The Avs were much more aggressive offensively after the first period and had a number of quality scoring chances in the final two periods.

“We created a lot,” Boitz said. “We missed four or five breakaways.”

Midway through the third period, Friese picked up the puck at the blueline and skated to the net alone, but wasn’t able to slip the puck into the Kenai net.

Earlier in the period, Jay Baldwin and Alex Rasmussen nearly connected on the 2-on-1 break.

“We could have finished a couple more, but as long as we get the chances, some of them will go in,” Currier said.

Kenai used a pair of power-play goals to get the early 3-0 lead.

Just six minutes into action, Annuziato tapped in a Lemke rebound after the Kenai forward created a turnover near the Alaska net.

About three minutes later, Nick Simson smacked a shot of the Alaska post on a Kenai power play, and Goodmanson was there to pop the rebound in the net.

Midway through the first frame, McGlasson blasted a shot from the point that flew right over the glove hand of McGlasson.

For results of Saturday’s game at the Menard Arena, see www.frontiersman.com/sports.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Alaska 4, Kenai River 3

Friday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Kenai- C. Annuziato (Lemke) 6:35; 2. Kenai- R. Goodmanson (Simson) pp 9:23; 3. Kenai- J. McGlasson (Simson) pp 15:08; 4. Alaska- D. Kimbro (A. Friese, Kowal) 16:45.

Second period — 5. Alaska- T. Currier (J. Cohen) 10:41.

Third period — 6. Alaska- L. Rounds (Kinnebrew) pp 15:20.

Shots: Kenai River 11-12-11-4—38; Alaska 11-16-11-5-1—44; Saves: Kenai River- Hamby 10-15-10-5-0—40, Alaska- MacGinnis 8-12-11-4—35; Power plays: Kenai River 2-for-11, Alaska 1-for-7; Penalties: Kenai River 14-for-45, Alaska 18-for-53.